1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product including silicon wires and a method of producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Silicon wires are wire-like molecules having diameters of several nanometers to several tens nanometers, specifically, 2 nm to 30 nm, for example, and lengths of 0.05 micrometers to several hundreds micrometers, specifically, 0.1 μm to 300 μm, for example.
The silicon wires are sometimes referred to as “silicon nanowires” because they are of sizes of the nano-order.
A silicon wire is formed by a production method therefor involving, for example, allowing Au nanoparticles to be monodispersed on a silicon wafer, and allowing Si to grow in SiH4 gas through high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (high-temperature CVD) by using as a catalyst the monodispersed Au nanoparticles (see, Charles Lieber, Appl. Phys. Lett., 78, 2214-2216 (2001)).
The silicon nanowires are characterized in that they are extremely thin and long, they have structural stability and excellent electrical property, and their electrical properties are easily controlled.
From the viewpoints of such characteristics, the silicon nanowires are expected to be utilized as an electronic material.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, high performance transistors can be produced by conducting doping to a silicon nanowire 41 to form an n-p-n junction and providing a gate insulating film 44 and electrodes. In FIG. 4, a reference numeral 42 denotes a source electrode, a reference numeral 43 denotes a drain electrode, a reference numeral 45 denotes a gate electrode, a reference numeral 46 denotes a TFT substrate, a reference numeral 47 denotes a semiconductor layer, and a reference numeral 48 denotes a protective layer.
The silicon nanowires are extremely thin. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, silicon nanowires 51 are sometimes arranged on electrodes at various angles between devices (in FIG. 5, a source electrode 52 and a drain electrode 53).